U.S. greenhouse gases

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2015. Compared to 2014 levels, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015. Compared to levels in 1990, emissions have increased by about 4 percent. From year to year, emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy, the price of fuel, and other factors. The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion, which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors; and a slight decrease in electricity demand.

While the Bush administration opted against to reduce emissions, the Obama administration and various state, local, and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis. For example, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states. In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the range of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.

The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report (USCAR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including measures to address climate change. The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012. Over that same period, actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent. The report estimated that in 2006, U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes (or 0.9 percent annual increase), and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes. By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels.

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